Sort of OT, or I should say, a broader football topic in general, but with the expanded 12 team CFP coming next year, what are everyone's thoughts on how the bowl system will shake out in the coming years?
Will everything remain the same and bowl tie-ins will continue to look more and more ridiculous as out of place teams continue to get paired together?
Will the bowl system die off entirely in the next several years, leaving mid-major programs in particular hurting when it comes to postseason revenue?
And what, if anything, could be done to either save, or dare I say, improve the CFB bowl format?.............
I ask this because I came up with one possible idea to keep bowl games relevant for programs that fail to make the new CFP. Instead of 42 different bowl games..........how about 14?
And teams are divided up into 4 team pods based on an expanded CFP Poll ranking format. No more tie-ins.
Instead, you have a "mini-tournament", with the higher-ranked team hosting a postseason game for the right to play in one of the now-exclusive few bowl games. Payouts are bigger, but tier-based, as there will be 3 different levels of bowl games for the 56 qualifying teams that make the new "bowl tournament" format. Oh and the base number of wins for bowl eligibility is now 7, instead of 6 (with the exception that 6-6 teams will be used to fill out the few extra tournament slots, instead of 5-7 teams).
With all that in mind, how would you all have liked it if this were Iowa's postseason projection for last year?
Tier 2
Sun Bowl Tournament-
#40 Cincinnati (9-3) at #37 Louisville (7-5)
#39 Iowa (7-5) at #38 Marshall (8-4)
-winners advance to Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX
Also, if that doesn't sell you, here are two other examples:
Tier 1
Citrus Bowl Tournament-
#17 LSU (9-4) at #13 Washington (10-2)
#15 Oregon State (9-3) at #14 Florida State (9-3)
-winners advance to Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL
Tier 3
Hawaii Bowl Tournament-
#56 East Carolina (7-5) at #53 San Diego State (7-5)
#55 Western Kentucky (8-5) at #54 Houston (7-5)
-winners advance to Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI
Will everything remain the same and bowl tie-ins will continue to look more and more ridiculous as out of place teams continue to get paired together?
Will the bowl system die off entirely in the next several years, leaving mid-major programs in particular hurting when it comes to postseason revenue?
And what, if anything, could be done to either save, or dare I say, improve the CFB bowl format?.............
I ask this because I came up with one possible idea to keep bowl games relevant for programs that fail to make the new CFP. Instead of 42 different bowl games..........how about 14?
And teams are divided up into 4 team pods based on an expanded CFP Poll ranking format. No more tie-ins.
Instead, you have a "mini-tournament", with the higher-ranked team hosting a postseason game for the right to play in one of the now-exclusive few bowl games. Payouts are bigger, but tier-based, as there will be 3 different levels of bowl games for the 56 qualifying teams that make the new "bowl tournament" format. Oh and the base number of wins for bowl eligibility is now 7, instead of 6 (with the exception that 6-6 teams will be used to fill out the few extra tournament slots, instead of 5-7 teams).
With all that in mind, how would you all have liked it if this were Iowa's postseason projection for last year?
Tier 2
Sun Bowl Tournament-
#40 Cincinnati (9-3) at #37 Louisville (7-5)
#39 Iowa (7-5) at #38 Marshall (8-4)
-winners advance to Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX
Also, if that doesn't sell you, here are two other examples:
Tier 1
Citrus Bowl Tournament-
#17 LSU (9-4) at #13 Washington (10-2)
#15 Oregon State (9-3) at #14 Florida State (9-3)
-winners advance to Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL
Tier 3
Hawaii Bowl Tournament-
#56 East Carolina (7-5) at #53 San Diego State (7-5)
#55 Western Kentucky (8-5) at #54 Houston (7-5)
-winners advance to Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI